1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a warhead with a tandem charge, including a fuze for sensing a target. A tandem charge includes a hollow charge which is fixed with respect to a housing, and with a smaller-caliber second-fired or follow-up charge being axially displaceable within a guide tube for the subsequent flight of the second-fired charge. Included are safety devices for the first and second-fired charges, providing for a firing delay for the second-fired charge.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A warhead with a tandem charge as set forth hereinabove is generally known from the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,928. In a housing there are arranged a target detector for either impact or proximity, an explosive charge operating on the principle of a hollow charge, a guide housing having an axially guided second-fired charge arranged therein, a propellent charge for the second-fired charge and a detonator for triggering of the hollow charge and of the second-fired charge. The guide housing for the second-fired charge together with the propellent charge thereof is pressure-resistant because of the high pressure exerted thereon by the propellent charge, and consequently possesses a comparatively large weight. This essentially signifies that the warhead is adapted for the destruction of aircraft runways by the explosive charge which produces a bore in the concrete slab of the runway, into which there penetrates the second-fired charge and then detonates therein.
Moreover, German Patent 26 29 280 discloses a warhead designed for deployment against aircraft which are disposed in shelters. That particular warhead incorporates a structure which, in principle, is similar to that disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,928. In that arrangement, however, the second-fired charge which is propelled by a propellent charge is in the form of a fragmentation projectile in order to increase the hitting probability thereof.
The above-mentioned known warheads are not suitable for use in combat areas and against shelters or dugouts which are protected behind barricades or barriers, since in fact the barriers which are constituted from heterogeneous materials are penetrated but, due to the high kinetic energy of the warhead, the latter is either not triggered or detonated too late.
It is readily obvious, that due to new and more stringent target criteria, represented by a barrier or barricade, it is necessary to correspondingly change the sensor device of the fuze. The foregoing then results in the unsatisfactory only partially successful condition that the barrier is admittedly penetrated by the hollow charge; however, the second-fired charge does not produce an effect by virtue of its delayed or post-acceleration.